A seminar in Brussels on the blockade of the Gaza Strip

Brussels — The Belgian Ministry of Cooperation, in cooperation with the Consulate General of Belgium in Jerusalem and the UNRWA agency, organised a seminar in Brussels on the occasion of the passing of nine years since the Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip on 14 June of the year 2007. The seminar aimed to shed light on the blockade and its destructive effects on the multiple aspects of Palestinian society, and to remind the world of the necessity of continuing work to lift it completely. The seminar was opened with a word from the Belgian Minister of Cooperation, Mr Alexander De Croo, and taking part in it were Mr Pierre Krähenbühl, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, and Mr Omar Shaban, director of Pal-Think for Strategic Studies. The seminar was attended by a dense audience of representatives of the international institutions working in the relief and legal field at the international level, as well as the ambassador and staff of the Embassy of Palestine in Brussels. Mr Pierre Krähenbühl spoke with great depth of the blockade's effect on the citizens of the Gaza Strip and on the services of UNRWA, which must face the poverty and great unemployment from which the Gaza Strip suffers because of the blockade and the multiple wars.
Mr Omar Shaban — the Palestinian participant who came from the Gaza Strip to take part in this important seminar — spoke of the tie between the blockade and the Palestinian division, which occurred on the same day .. so the results came compound and complicated, in which the Palestinian division interlaced with the Israeli blockade. He pointed out likewise that the Palestinian political project has stopped and split by force of the division and the blockade. The Gaza Strip, which was economically productive, has become relief-dependent, relying on the help of the donor states. Shaban warned that the social and economic indicators, with the Strip's population growth, require working immediately to lift the blockade and to carry out development projects directed especially at the youth, to strengthen moderation and face extremism — since the suffering of the Strip's citizens, especially the youth and the sick, requires permanent intervention and not awaiting development on the political track. This seminar comes in follow-up of the results of the Belgian foreign minister's visit to Palestine and the destroyed areas in the Gaza Strip last April.